Should we trust journalists more than bankers to manage Libor?

That’s an only partly rhetorical question Thursday in light of a Financial Times report that Thomson Reuters, the Canada-based media and news giant, is in the running to manage a new system for determining the London Interbank Offered Rate, or, as money nerds call it, Libor.

A quick refresher here:

Libor is a rate calculated by a group of banks that determines the average rate at which banks in London loan money to each other. It serves as a benchmark rate, off of which everything from mortgages to car loans and corporate are priced. About $350 trillion of financial securities and contracts are based on Libor, according to published estimates.

And, on Tuesday, Three British men were arrested in the U.K. as part of the continuing Libor investigation, Britain’s Serious Fraud Office said. The Serious Fraud Office said it executed search warrants and that the three men, aged 33, 41 and 47, were taken to a London police station for questioning.

Thomson Reuters has been assured by regulators that it is not being investigated as part of the probe, according to the Financial Times report. The report said the Thomson Reuters rival Bloomberg is also among the bidders to manage the new Libor process. See more details on other likely bidders

Companies like Reuters and Bloomberg entered the picture following a decision by U.K. regulators to revise Libor rather than get rid of it altogether. Importantly for both firms, the regulators decided the rate and its calculation should remain in the hands of private firms.

Quoted during the fall in the Financial Times, Martin Wheatley, the Financial Services Authority managing director told the paper, “We started out with an open mind [about whether it] would be possible to move to a different rate, and the answer is no.” But he also took a bit of a swipe at banks by telling the paper,“”Society has lost confidence in banks, in finance, in the whole system and we need to restore that.”

The question for Mr. Wheatley and others is whether media firms with close ties to the financial industry would be any less likely to bungle the system, malevolently or otherwise, than a group of bankers.

Looking at recent polling of public opinion, one doubts the average person with a mortgage or credit card balance is any more likely to feel good about journalists doing the math than with bankers.

As Dow Jones colleague David Weidner pointed out earlier this month, “A Gallup poll (recently) found that journalists are considered less honest and ethical than many other professionals including college teachers, psychiatrists and chiropractors… That’s OK with me. I’d probably agree. But get this, Gallup also found that journalists rank just below bankers for honesty and ethics. Thirty percent of respondents had a low or very low opinion of journalists’ honesty and ethics compared to 28% for bankers. Only 24% had a favorable view for journalists, compared to 28% for bankers.” Read Weidner’s column

Story Conversation

About The Tell

The Tell is MarketWatch’s fast and engaging look at trends and themes in the day’s markets. Drawing on our reporters, analysts and commentators around the world, as well as selecting the best of the rest online, The Tell is all about the pulse of the markets through news, insight and strategic information to help you make the best investing decisions. Got a tip? Tell us at TheTell@MarketWatch.com